Wednesday, July 22, 2015

The Google Maps Flâneur

To enter Random Google Maps is to undertake a journey through the labyrinthine streets and hidden spaces of the map. It is an immersion in the secret language of the map; it is to see the map, to be at the center of the map, and yet to always remain hidden from the map1.

Sorry - I got lost for a second there. Actually Random Google Maps is an animated journey through random locations on Google Maps, with each new location decorated in a random Google Maps style. Just fire up Random Google Maps and sit back as the application takes you through an ever changing landscape of random locations presented in ever changing random colors.

If you take a little peak at the JavaScript behind Random Google Maps you will discover that the locations aren't really that random at all. The map picks from 26 locations around the world at random and then applies random colors to a number of the map features.